Color Me Pretty: A Father's Best Friend Romance

If I had longer hair, I’d have pulled it out by now. It was better than putting my fist in The Dick’s face like I wanted to as soon as he showed up uninvited right before lunchtime. I was already on edge since I left Della’s apartment yesterday morning and knew that the note I’d left wasn’t good enough after what we’d done. She deserved more than one text after she sent me that picture—a call. A visit. I’d planned on surprising her tonight for dinner.

My mind wrapped around the feeling of her squeezing me, leaving me permanently hard all fucking day. It didn’t put me in a good mood since I’d taken a cold shower while planning how to approach us now. We couldn’t go back, I didn’t want to, but that didn’t mean moving forward would be easy. Dealing with an asshole like Pratt certainly didn’t put my thoughts at ease because his eyes told me they knew. I wasn’t sure how, but he did.

“You’re not even listening, are you?” He wiped his mouth with a napkin before sitting back in the chair across from me. The restaurant he chose was busy and public, probably for his benefit since I was red-faced as soon as he stepped foot into my office and told me we needed to talk. Yet, we did a whole lot of bullshitting over the forty-five minutes I was stuck here with other rich pricks and businessmen. Half of them were probably making deals that went beyond the scope of their experience based on the beady fuckers at the tables closest to us.

“When you have something valuable to say, I’ll listen.” My voice was emotionless, something that clearly pissed him off. It was obvious he lived for people’s reactions when he wasted their time with his bullshit. I bet it worked most of the time.

His scowl made me grin. “Let’s get down to business then. Samantha.”

I blinked. “Your daughter? What the fuck does she have to do with anything?”

His arms rested on the edge of the table, his head cocking to examine me with a glint in his eyes that I refused to react to. “I happen to know she’s been hanging out with Adele Saint James, Katrina Murphy, and Gina Vandyke.”

One of my brows arched, but silence remained between us because I wasn’t going to offer him anything until he got to the point.

“I’m sure you’re not surprised that they enjoy treating themselves to the Murphy and Vandyke stash.” Anybody who was involved with their social circle knew that he was talking about drugs and fake money, but I didn’t like his tone or what he was implying between the lines.

My eyes narrowed. Attention drawn, I leaned toward him with new anger boiling over inside me. “What are you getting at, Pratt?”

“What do you think, Theo?” His lips twitched at the corners—amusement obvious over my distaste for his accusation.

“Adele doesn’t do that shit. Just because you let your daughter ruin her fucking life because you don’t give a fuck about your family doesn’t mean she’s anything like that.”

“Always so protective,” he chuckled. “I have it on good authority that isn’t the case though. The good little girl you thought you were raising is no different than Samantha.”

“Bullshit.”

One shoulder lifted. “Believe what you want, but the truth will come out. Sooner rather than later, in fact. Don’t think it’ll stop there either. There are things I’m sure you wouldn’t want out that will affect the both of you.”

His threat hit me square in the chest, setting off the need to deny or avoid it entirely. “I would watch it if I were you.”

“Funny. I was going to say the same to you. Do you think you’re the only person who has eyes and ears on other people? Money talks. We’re both made of it. Some of us put it to good use if it means gaining something.”

The only thing he was gaining is the likelihood of me smashing his face against the goddamn table. His family, and the Vandyke’s, printed counterfeit bills as their main source of income these days, drugs were a new business venture over the past year. I was surprised they hadn’t been caught yet. I’d like to think it was only a matter of time before their operation was discovered, but I had no leverage besides hearsay.

Rubbing my lips together, I considered my reply. If I said the wrong thing, he’d run with it because he did have the money and power to do something about it, even if some of that money was fake. That should have worried me, but I refused to let it. “I think you’re a coward, Richard. You’re trying to scare me into believing you have dirt on me because you’re not getting what you want. Child’s play, really.”

His stare pinned me, but I held it. Did he have dirt on me? Probably. But there were things I was careful about, that I was positive nobody else knew. Things that involved just how invested I was with a certain blonde, and I knew immediately when his eyes flashed that he understood clearly where my thoughts went.

Digging into his pocket, he flattened out a small piece of paper that I identified immediately.

Left for work. Took the dog home.

I saw the way he watched me examine the note I’d left for Della, but I knew better than to show it was tied to either her or me. I hadn’t signed it. The best he could do was assume.

“How do you think it would look if stories of your time with little Saint James came out? If people saw just how you looked at her? How you’d leave her little notes early in the morning after a sleepover together?” His inquiry was cocky. I said nothing, fueling him. Denying it would only make him go further, so silence was the only way to go. “Maybe you’re right, Theo. Maybe I don’t have anything on you. But her? Well, so long as she’s around Samantha and the other girls, she’s around the same corruption her father got head deep in. Would be a shame, wouldn’t it? Such potential, I’m told. I’m not sure she’d be the same if the media came after her again considering her last round with them.”

I was fine being threatened and taking it, but Della? She didn’t deserve to be dragged into any of this. Standing, the chair scraped back as I slammed money down on the table and gripped the edge of it. “Your family has always been faced with corruption because you’re weak. Adele, what she’s gone through, has made her strong. Your threats will only ever be that.”

The smirk he gave me told me that he didn’t believe it, which was a problem. If he was willing to act himself it was for good reason. Normally he hired other people to do his dirty work. But I couldn’t go back and change my reaction to something that wasn’t so telling.

He knew.

He knew that I cared about Della.

He’d use her to get what he wanted.

Fuck.